All New Legends of the Dark Knight Volume Three
All New Batman: The Dark Knight is the second book in my fictional Batman series. It stars the Riddler as the main villain, and serves as an origin for Mr Zsasz. It is the sequel to All New Batman: The Dark Knight Volume One. The next book is All New Batman: The Dark Knight Volume Four Plot Main Story The book opens with Batman chasing Victor Zsasz down a hallway. Zsasz is hurriedly carving a tally mark into his skin, and ducks as Batman throws a Batarang. Zsasz runs into an abandoned warehouse, and begins scaling the cargo containers. Batman loops a rope around him and pulls him down. Zsasz throws his knife, which strikes Batman in the shoulder. Batman pulls the knife out and throws a punch at Zsasz, who blocks it and kicks Batman in the stomach, breaking his toe on Batman's body armor, but winding the Dark Knight. He dashes out of a door and into the street, where he opens a manhole and climbs into the sewer. Before Batman can follow, a a police van rounds the corner and a heavily armed SWAT team gets out, led by Edward Nigma. Batman drops a smoke pellet and grapples up through a broken window. Nigma curses his team's stupidity and storms out, vowing to defeat the Batman. Back at the newly formed Batcave, Alfred comments that it has been a year since the death of Oswald Cobblepot while stitching up the wound in Bruce's shoulder and suggests that, especially as his wife is a staunch disapprover of Batman, maybe it's time for Bruce to hang up the cowl. Bruce refuses and goes to bed. He dreams of his fight with Anarky, and Jessica's subsequent rejection of Batman as a hero. He wakes up and sees Jessica in bed next to him. Bruce tries to remember when their marriage wasn't so strained and fails. He goes back to sleep and hopes tomorrow will be easier. The next morning, Jessica has already left for work. Bruce decides to take a walk and Alfred drives him into Gotham. Bruce wanders past the newly re-opened WayneTech and remembers it exploding, and the look of desperation in Anarky's eyes. Bruce spent weeks Anarky's death trying to track down his family, but never managed it. He wonders if Batman has done more harm than good. He goes home. Later that evening, he heads down to the cave and puts on the Batsuit and heads out. Batman heads to the GCPD, where he meets his secret allies Captain James Gordon and Harvey Dent. Gordon remarks that they need a better way of communicating with Batman. Dent sarcastically suggests a Bat-signal. Gordon tells Batman that they've found another lead on Zsasz, but have to be careful how the go about bringing him down with Nigma watching all the time. Gordon tells Batman that all the victims so far have been the same age. Upon further digging, Gordon found that they were all in the same class as Zsasz in school. Gordon informs Batman that there are only three left, and that two have been taken into protective custody. Batman asks where, and Gordon tells him they are in the GCPD safe house, in Park Row. From the door, a hidden figure listens in. He then calls Zsasz, who is in the middle of gutting his latest victim, and tells him where the safe house is. Zsasz hangs up and gets back to stabbing. Once satisfied, he cuts a tally mark into his skin and leaves. That night, Batman keeps watch over the safe house, when he sees a man climb in through the window. Batman swoops down, only to see a shadow move round the corner. He follows silently, and eventually discovers Zsasz about to kill one of the people in protective custody. Just before he can, Batman leaps into the room, launching Batarangs from his hands. They strike Zsasz's arm, and he shrieks, dropping the knife into his foot. The man wakes up at the screaming and promptly faints at the sight of Batman and Zsasz. Zsasz turns, furious, babbling about being denies the mark and leaps at Batman. The two fight, but due to his injury, Zsasz is forced to flee. Two cops enter the room and order Batman to put his hands behind his head. Batman does so, and presses a switch on his right gauntlet that activates a sound frequency that is painful to humans. Fox's latest innovation. With the cops incapacitated, Batman climbs out of the window after Zsasz and chases him across the rooftops. However, a police helicopter with Nigma on board appears and begins shooting at Batman, allowing Zsasz to escape. Batman bellows "IDIOT" at Nigma and flees. Nigma cries that he isn't and idiot, and orders that they pursue the Batman. He loses them, and as the adrenaline wears off, notices an bullet wound in his leg. He hears the sound of sires and sets off again, wincing at the pain in his leg. The police manage to corner him in a construction site, and send in a SWAT team. Nigma vows to show Batman who the idiot is. The SWAT unit comb the site for Batman, who has lost a lot of blood. He manages to pick off a few of them before the see him and open fire. Pinned down behind a cement mixer, with the enemy approaching, Batman sees a spade and has an idea. He cuts a section of cape off using a a Batarang. A police helicopter watches from above, with Nigma on board. Suddenly, Batman's grappling line is fired at it and hooks onto the skids underneath. He goes flying up towards the helicopter, and Nigma leans out with a pistol and four times, only hitting with one bullet. The rest hit the Swat team below. The bullet that hits Batman knocks off his cowl, revealing him to be a spade with Batman's grappling gun attached and his cape and cowl draped over it. The spade rockets upwards and hits nigma in the leg. He falls to the floor, howling. The real Batman escapes down an alleyway with the section of cape he cut off wrapped around his face, where a police car pulls up. Batman tenses for a fight, but relaxes when Gordon and Dent get out. They pull him into the car and drive him back to the GCPD where Gordon tends to Batmans leg. Batman tells Gordon about Zsasz, and that he's injured. They should follow the trail of blood on the rooftops, in order to track down Zsasz. Gordon agrees, and Batman limps home. Entering the cave, Alfred rushes forwards and catches the exhausted and injured Bruce. He commends Gordon's medical ability and replaces the stitches that came out during Bruce's walk home. He heads upstairs to sleep, noting that Jessica isn't there, and also that she isn't there the next morning. Bruce sighs, and begins to wonder if there's any point to what he's doing. That evening, Bruce meets Gordon and Dent in his office at the GCPD. Dent notices Batman's weariness and asks if he's OK. Batman says he's just tired. Dent tells Batman their plan to capture Zsasz, and begrudgingly admits it was provided by Edward Nigma. The plan is to use one of Zsasz's classmates as bait. They've been reassured that there will be police watching at all times. What they haven't been assured of is that if there's any trouble, Batman will swoop in and stop Zsasz. Gordon informs Batman that all the officers present support his methods, so he shouldn't face any resistance from them. Batman agrees to it, and they set up a time and place. Outside Gordon's office, the mystery man listens in again and calls Zsasz afterwards to tell him about the trap. The next night, the bait (named Jerry) walks around the courtyard of the Gotham Museum. He looks up at the cops watching from the windows, but is told by Gordon in his earpiece not to look at them. Jerry looks down and continues pacing. From a gargoyle high above, Batman watches through a collapsible telescope. Suddenly, a man in a trench coat (limping on the foot Zsasz got stabbed though and with bandages wrapped around the arm Batman bataranged) approaches Jerry. Batman alerts Gordon and glides to a better position to attack from. The man walks towards Jerry, who freezes up, and grabs him. He puts a knife to Jerry's throat and warns Batman and the GCPD to stay away or he'll kill him. Knowing Zsasz will kill him anyway, Batman swoops in from behind and kicks Zsasz over. Jerry scrabbles away, as Zsasz turns to face Batman. Dent asks Gordon if they should move in. Gordon declines, saying that if Batman takes him down, the people might begin to view him as the hero he is, and that if there's one thing the people of this god forsaken city need, it's a hero. Batman and Zsasz fight. However, due to Batman's heavy injuries and exhaustion, Zsasz begins to gain the upper hand, dodging batarangs and gradually wearing his opponent down. With a leg-sweep, he floors batman and grabs a batarang, intending to slit Batman's throat with it. With the last of his strength, Batman throws Zsasz off. Zsasz hit's the ground, dazed, as Batman moves in. Batman grabs Zsasz's head and slams it into the ground, knocking him out. Gordon has a paramedic look over Batman, but he shrugs her off, saying that he's fine. Gordon arrests Zsasz and has him taken back to the Crane Institute. Batman returns home, groaning about the distance between Wayne Manor and Gotham, and wonders if he should get a car. Bruce heads upstairs to sleep, but is waylaid by Jessica, who asks where he's been. Bruce stammers that he's just been wandering around. Jessica points out his exhaustion, and says she knows he's been out every night since she became Mayor. She asks if he's having an affair. Bruce denies it, and Jessica demands the truth. After failing to provide a satisfactory answer, Jessica stops him from leaving and asks if Bruce even loves her anymore. Bruce mutters that she wouldn't notice. When asked to elaborate, he points out that she's away all the time. Jessica retorts that she has to see Batman brought to justice, and Bruce tells her she's being stupid. They argue some more, and it culminates in Bruce telling her that he is Batman. Jessica is stunned, and then storms down the stairs saying that she wants a divorce. Meanwhile, Zsasz is undergoing his first round of treatment at the hands of Doctor Valerie Pace. She asks why he wanted to kill his old classmates, and so Zsasz tells her a story: When he was a boy, Victor Zsasz's parents died suddenly, leaving him alone in the world. He was raised by an abusive uncle, who squandered the Zsasz fortune and was often tormented at school for his high pitched voice. By the age of sixteen, Zsasz was contemplating suicide. However, as he walked into Gotham to buy some rope, he was accosted by a man in a knife who demanded his money. Zsasz looked into the mans eyes, and saw the same look of desperation, of oblivion that he had seen in his own. Instead of giving him his money, Zsasz gave the mugger a better gift: he freed the man from his misery. By stabbing him through the throat. The feeling of elation he felt was like nothing he had felt before, and he felt the need to mark his joyous rebirth as the savior of all mankind. So he took the knife and carved a mark into his arm. Soon, he needed to kill again and began preying on the homeless of Gotham to sate his urges. However, none of the other people at school seemed to appreciate the importance of his role. So one day, he took a gun to school and freed five of his classmates and two teachers from the relentless cruelty of life. He was arrested, and taken to the Crane Institute, where Doctor Chase Meridian treated him. He fell in love with her, but when she rejected him he decided that it only proved his philosophy. He stopped eating, as he saw no other way to free himself, when suddenly a mysterious man unlocked the door and led him out. Once back on the streets, he tracked Meridian to her home where he killed her and defiled her corpse. Then, he began hearing of a monstrous Batman, who fought other monsters. Zsasz concluded that this "Batman" must have experienced some terrible tragedy in his life two, and decided to free him. Thus, he began to hunt down his old classmates in order to lure Batman out. Doctor Pace stops him there, pale and wide eyed. She is told that Zsasz has a visitor from the GCPD who wishes to speak to him alone. Pace gladly accepts the opportunity to leave and practically runs out of the room. Edward Nigma pulls up a chair and sits down in front of Zsasz's cell. He introduces himself, and Zsasz recognises him as the man who freed him and began warning him of Police traps. Nigma confirms this and tells Zsasz he has a proposition. He offers to let Zsasz out again. Zsasz agrees instantly, eager to return to his work. Nigma smiles and says that if Batman likes to set traps for serial killers, they'll just have to set a trap for Batman. Suddenly, Nigma's phone rings. He answers and is told by Jessica to come to city hall at once. Nigma hangs up and unlocks Zsasz's cell, telling him that there is an unlocked door at the end of the corridor which will take him into the pump room, and from there into Gotham's sewers. Nigma turns and leaves muttering about proving he is cleverer than Batman. In Jessica's office at city hall, she tells him that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Nigma is stunned and asks how she knows. Jessica says because he told her. Nigma is quiet for a moment and then tells Jessica that he has a plan to capture Batman. When asked what it is, he tells her that he has arranged for Zsasz to be in an abandoned house in the slums, and that now he knows that Jessica is Batman's wife he can use her as bait. Jessica is horrified, and refuses to go along with Nigma's plan. She attempts to call for security, but Nigma whacks her over the head with butt of gun. Jessica falls to the ground, and the last thing she sees before blacking out is Nigma's foot hurtling towards her face. Bruce sits in the cave, furiously attempting to locate Zsasz using the Batcomputer. Alfred comes down the steps and asks what he's doing. Bruce explains how he has hacked every CCTV system in Gotham in order to try and locate Zsasz. Alfred tells him that throwing himself into a half-assed plan to catch a sociopath won't make Jessica come back. Bruce freezes up, but continues working. Alfred puts a hand on Bruce's shoulder and tries to pull him away from the computer, but Bruce shrugs him off. Angry, Alfred slaps Bruce and tells him that moping about in a cave wearing a bat costume won't make Jessica take him back, and that he's hiding from his problems like a coward. Angry, Bruce attempts to punch Alfred, but is Blocked. Alfred tells Bruce his emotions are making him sloppy. Bruce attempts a kick, but Alfred catches it and twists him over. Bruce lands hard on the floor, winded. Alfred tells him that he can't watch him get himself killed on some mad crusade. Bruce tells him to leave, then. He angrily tells Alfred that he doesn't want a man who would steal a boy's mother or the wife of his best friend watching over him. Alfred is stunned, as is Bruce. They both glare at each other for a few moments, and then hear the phone ring. Alfred goes upstairs to answer it, and sprints back down a few moments afterwards. He tells Bruce that Nigma is on the line, and that he has Jessica hostage. Bruce takes the phone and demands to know where Jessica is. Nigma reveals he knows that Bruce is Batman and that he and gives Bruce the address of the house he and Zsasz are in. Bruce pulls on his cowl and dives off of the cliff Wayne Manor is built on, and glides to the GCPD, crashing through the window of Gordon's office. Startled, he demands to know what's going on. Batman tells him that Nigma and Zsasz have Mayor Wayne hostage. Gordon leaps up and arranges a SWAT team. Batman gives him the address and runs up to the roof. From there he swings and glides all the way to the slums. In a house in the slums, Nigma and Zsasz menace Jessica. Suddenly, Batman bursts in through the window. He punches Nigma in the face, shattering his nose, and then turns to deal with Zsasz. He and Zsasz fight again, though this time it is a lot more brutal. Zsasz stabs Batman, who in turn launches a Batarang into Zsasz's shoulder. Zsasz drops his knife, and Batman moves in to finish him. breaking both of Zsasz's arms and his right shin. Suddenly, Batman hears a scream and turns to see Nigma holding Jessica hostage. When asked why he's doing this, Nigma says it is in revenge for Batman calling him stupid. Batman is stunned by Nigma's pettiness, but is even more so when Nigma shoots Jessica through the head, blowing half of her face off. He turns to shoot Batman, who throws a Batarang into Nigma's gun, jamming the barrel. He then slams Nigma's head into a wall, knocking him out, and throws him out of the window. He lands on the bonnet of Captain Gordon's car. When Harvey learns that Jessica is dead, he launches himself at Batman, blaming him. Gordon calms him down, and when he turns to talk to Batman he sees that he has gone. Epilogue The Riddler is taken to the Crane Institute for the Criminally Insane. He spends his days in a padded cell, in a straight jacket moaning that he knows something about Batman, but can't remember what (from the concussion he sustained during Batman's attack). Zsasz is put in the cell next to him and cries about being denied the mark. Category:Bluemetrox Category:Fan fiction